Shade: The scaffolding with netting designed to stop the 'heat ray' from the Walkie Talkie tower

The architect who designed the Walkie 'Scorchie' tower in central London suffered similar problems with the sun's rays on a Las Vegas hotel he designed, it emerged today.

Uruguayan-born Rafael Vinoly designed the Vdara Hotel, in Las Vegas, where a “death ray” of sunlight, caused by the design of the building, allegedly left guests with severe burns in September 2010.

A screen was erected today to prevent the London skyscraper from causing further damage by focusing the sun's rays on to the ground.

The half-finished 37-storey tower known as the “Walkie Talkie” due to its distinctive shape is now being called the “Walkie Scorchie” because of its ability to bounce heat from the sun onto the next street.

Temporary scaffolding with black netting was put up this morning to cover businesses affected in Eastcheap.

Nearby business owners say the £200 million project has blistered paintwork, caused tiles to smash and singed fabric. A motorist has also said the intense heat melted part of his Jaguar.

Experts say they believe the fires start because the reflections of sunlight bounce off the building’s curved windows and all converge at one point, concentrating the light.

Land Securities and Canary Wharf, developers of the building at 20 Fenchurch Street, said in a joint statement last night: “Following approval from the City of London, we will be erecting a temporary scaffold screen at street level on Eastcheap within the next 24 hours.

“This solution should minimise the impact on the local area over the next two-to-three weeks, after which time the phenomenon is expected to have disappeared.

“We are also continuing to evaluate longer-term solutions to ensure this issue does not recur in future.”